I knew that I needed to do something that I desperately loved. There was a period where I did question if it was acting because I knew that I would be making things hard on myself. I knew that there was going to be a little bit of a hullabaloo because of my dad being who he is and all that.

In 2006 Hanks had a cameo role in Black's Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny playing a drunken fraternity brother. Henry Jones. He is also featured alongside Jane Fonda in the Moisés Kaufman Broadway play 33 Variations.

He is the eldest son of actor Tom Hanks. He also portrayed the role of Alex Whitman in Roswell Henry Jones in Band of Brothers and appeared on the sixth season of the Showtime crime drama Dexter.